If there is any chapter in the Bible that is more meaningful to Don White than Genesis 22, I do not know what it is. So, with that as the preface, let me tell you that this chapter means, and this lesson today, means more to me probably than it does to most of y'all, but for a different reason than what you would have expected. Not for the fact that it talks about the crucifixion, not that it talks about the fact that God provides atonement for us, not that it provides it from God's perspective. None of that. It does because this was the section of Scripture that set me on my course of discipleship. And when it was affirmed to me that I was in fact doing what God wanted me to do. So Genesis 22 has a lot of meaning to me personally, not necessarily because of the topic, although the topic is absolutely amazing and it's going to mean that hopefully to all of y'all as well, but because of what this section of scripture stands for just for me. So let me just sort of tell you that story real quickly. Back in 1990, I was teaching here, and I was teaching the Book of Genesis at First Baptist Church. That was the church that we were all at before we started Treasure Coast Community Church in 1992. got a phone call from Ray Cohen who was my mentor pastor down in Fort Lauderdale who ran Beth Yeshua, which is the House of Jesus in Hebrew, a Jewish mission that we were involved in down in Fort Lauderdale. And he asked me to come down and to teach his Bible study. Ray had had a stroke a couple of years before that. His son had taken over his Bible study and his son couldn't do it. And he called me and he said, I'd like you to do the Bible study. And I said, Well, what would you like me to do? And he said, Well, just do whatever you're doing, wherever you are, I don't Well, as it turned out, I was in Genesis 22, just not by any real reason other than that's where I was, right? And so I went down and I taught this section, what I taught that week, but I didn't actually teach the entire section. I only did a word study on the word himself, which is in verse eight, which we'll talk about a little bit today. But in the middle of this thing, Ray is just crying. He's bawling. I mean, literally, he's just losing it. And I'm thinking, did I say something? Did I do, what did I do? What did I do wrong? And he came to me afterwards and he said, did you use my notes for your Bible study? I said, I don't think so. I basically put it all together and used my Thompson chain, my faithful Thompson chain that I used at those days, which I have right here in front of me. And he says, open up my Bible to Genesis 22. So I did. And inside of his Bible, he had done something that I've kind of replicated. He would take a piece of paper that was a key Bible lesson, and he would glue it into his Bible, just like I've done here. And so in Genesis 22, he had this piece of paper, just like this one, And on the top it said, Genesis 22, eight, himself. And it was a word study on himself. And I am not kidding you, it was almost exactly the same as what I had written and just taught. Almost, in fact, the order was exactly the same. I basically figured out later why that was and that's because in the Thompson chain, if you know anything about the Thompson chain, it's a chain reference Bible and you kind of work through that. And he and I used the same chain, is what I later figured out. But nevertheless, we had the exact same Bible study. And it really affected him. Because he was dying and he knew it. He actually died about six weeks after this. And he said to me, he said, Don, this means more than you know. And I said, why is that? And he said, because at least I know I have one disciple. somebody who is going to carry on what we're doing. And that's really what the ministry is all about. It's about carrying on what you started. And so, with that as a backdrop, I want you to know how meaningful this particular section is to me. Now, I have to take issue with Dr. Evans' approach to this particular chapter because I don't agree with him. I couldn't say at all, that would be ridiculous. I mean, I would never say that, obviously. But his take on the idea of God has to know something is something that I don't think makes any sense, because if you understand where he's going in this section, in this idea with Jehovah-Jireh, with this name of God, this compound name, this first name of God in the scripture, first time in scripture where we see this expression Jehovah with another word used. I actually have counted, I went back into the Hebrew dictionary last night and I counted actually 11 places where it's Jehovah something. He he talks about eight of them or not eight. I guess it is eight eight in our In our book, but there's there's actually a couple more And they're and they're interesting because they're all different and they're all for different reasons but this one is really a big deal a real big deal because the word Jehovah Jireh Okay. So here's what we're going to do. Who's got a BLB in their phone? Okay. I want you to go, I want you to, if you've got a BLB in your phone, please open up the BLB and I want everybody to do this. Everybody open up the BLB, go to Genesis 22 and click on verse 14. So when you go to Genesis 22 and you click on that verse, That will, let me do it while we're at it here. Genesis 22 and verse 14. So go to your Old Testament, Genesis. Yes, go to 22 and go down to verse 14 and just hit on 14. And then when you get to the next thing, it's going to say study. Click on interlinear concordance, top one, and it'll bring you to this little thing here, and then you'll see the actual words, and on the left is the, depending on how you have it set up, left or right, on one side is gonna be the word in Hebrew, and then the other side is gonna be the English, and in the middle is gonna be the Strong's number, and I want you to go to Jehovah Jireh, and turn off your volume. So go to Jehovah Jireh and you'll see that that's about the fifth one down, something like that, sixth one down, whatever it is. And you'll notice that there's two words there, you see it? Okay, so you have Yehovah, which of course is the name of God. And then you have Ra, okay, Ra, or actually Rea. And when you put those two words together, you get Jehovah-Jarrah. Okay, Jehovah-Jarrah. And that's how you get the word. Okay, does everybody see that? Okay, now click on Ra. Just touch on it. You should get the Hebrew word. You should come right up to the Hebrew word. It's advanced stuff here. This is really big for Ken. All right, so now you're in that word and you see it'll say transliteration, raw, middle pronunciation, what part of speech, and then it says outline a biblical usage, you see that? Okay, and it says to see, to see, everybody see that? Okay. Now, later on, it actually will give you some other, you know, ways that it's used. But do you notice there, everywhere it's talking about to see, to perceive, to have vision, right? I mean, that's the way this word Ra is used. Now, if you go down a little bit further, all the way down to where it says, can Gordon's results using and whatever version you're using. I'm using the King James Version. And it'll tell you how many times it's used. Now, you can see there, it occurs 1,314 times. So this is like not a very, you know, uncommon word. This is a pretty common word, right? And why? Because to see with your eyes, to perceive with your eyes, is a pretty common expression. We use it all the time. That's why I'm calling this the Nelson talk, okay? Because Nelson doesn't see anymore with his eyes, but he still sees. Right, Nelson? Yeah, so here's the cool part about this. So then you see all the different places it's used. And it says, for example, in Genesis 121, it says, and God saw, same word, that it was good. He sees these things. In chapter 6, in verse 2, it says that the Son of God saw the daughters of men. So the idea here is that it's about being seen with your eyes. It's about being seen. Everybody got that? Very important. All right, so when he talks about Jehovah-Jarrah, what he's talking about is he's talking about the fact that God sees. God sees. God knows because He sees. Everybody got that? All right, so now with that as a backdrop, let's read the chapter. So go over to Genesis 22. I also wanted to show you how to use the DLD. Because I think so many guys have it and they don't even know how to use it. So I think it took a minute. Blue Letter Bible. And if you don't have it, download it. It's free. You can contribute to BLB. They need all the money you can send them because they do incredible work. Okay. So here's the deal. Let's read Genesis 22. It says this, and it came, and we're reading the King James. I'm reading the King James today because I believe that the King James gives the best translation of this section of all the different Bibles. Okay. So, and I've read them all. that I can, I've read probably 25 different versions, not all of them, but I've read like 25 different versions and I always come back to this one because this one to me is just the best. Listen, it says, and it came to pass after these things that God did, and the word there is tempt in the King James, now this is the one place I take exception with the King James, because the word literally means to test. It's the same word that God uses in the book of Job, where he says, have you seen my servant Job? And, you know, we want to test him. And by the way, and that same word is interpreted test in Job. It means test. And in most of the newer versions, they actually use the word test. In King James, they use the word tempt. But listen to what he says here. He says, And it came to pass in these things that God did test Abraham, Abraham, excuse me, and said unto him, Abraham, and he said, Hineni, behold, here am I. This is the first place in scripture where we see someone other than God using the expression, Hineni, here am I. Every other time, it's God saying that. But here, it's man saying that. And by the way, we're gonna see this a variety of different times. We saw it in the book of Isaiah, now Isaiah chapter six, where Isaiah says that he, in the year that King Uzziah died, he was raised up and he brought into the temple and he saw the Lord high and lifted up and his train filled the temple. And the Lord said, who will go for me? And he said, Hineni, here am I. We see the same thing with Ezekiel, where he said, Hineni. In fact, so much so that our band actually wrote a song called Hineni. The verse of the song goes, Hineni means, I'm with you, Lord. Hineni means, I follow. Hineni means, I see you, Lord. Hineni means, it's just this really cool little ditto that we put together. But the idea here is that Hineni means, behold, or here am I, I'm here. There's nobody else here except me. I'm here. Now, as I said, the only person who used that before was God. But now man is taking on this expression of God. Cool thing. There are so many firsts in this particular chapter, and we're going to go through here. We're going to see all these different firsts. So the first one is that this is the first place where man says hineni. Verse 2, and he said, take now thy son, thy only son, thy one son. Now, it's interesting because in Hebrew, the word for one, the number, is the word echad. It's an interesting word in Hebrew because it's a plural word. One is a plural word. Echad is a plural word. Why? Because for the most part, when they're thinking about one, They're thinking about it in its plurality. So, for example, in Genesis 2.24 it says, And the man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife and they shall become one, echad, flesh. In another place in Deuteronomy 6.4 it says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. The word is Echad. Why? Because it is, as we talked about last week, that triune nature of God. You know, Shema Yisro Adonai Eloheinu Adonai. So that's the same thing that we talked about last week. So Echad. So this idea of one is actually a plurality. But here, it's not plural. He uses the word Yechad, or Yechid, depending upon which way you want to pronounce it. So Yechid, what does it mean? Yechid is, and that's why it says in the King James, my only son. Not just my one son, my only son. Because Yahed means only, it means solely. There is no other thing except that. Everybody understand that? Okay, really important that you get that. So now... Oh yeah, and he's not his only son. That's exactly correct. And so that's a whole other discussion that we're not even going to get into. I guess I should have my notes open, but I probably don't really need them in this part. But anyhow, so he says, so take your only son, your Yahid's son, Isaac, whom you love. This is the first place in scripture where the word love is used. It's never been used up till now. Now, there are all sorts of opportunities God could have had, or people could have had, to have used the word love in the Bible. But, go to your BLB, pull up the word love, you're gonna see this is the first place that the word love is used in the Bible. And yet, the word love is used countless times. I don't even know how many times the word love is in the Bible. It's more than once. And, you know, but he says, whom thou lovest, or whom thou loves. Really an interesting expression because of course we all know that for God so loved the world that he gave, what? His only son. his Yahid son, his only son, right? Important that we understand that. You know, this idea, bar Yahid is basically the word in Hebrew. So we have this idea of God's only son, and of course we see that in Hebrew, and we also see it in the New Testament as well, where it says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son. So we see this, he says, whom he lovest and gave thee, into the land of Moriah. This is the first place in the Bible where the word Moriah is used. Well, why is Moriah important? Well, Moriah is an interesting word because if you look it up in your BLB, and you can do it on your own time, it means to be seen by God. Seen by God. That's what it means. Well that's interesting. So I want you to see this commonality that we're going to see throughout this entire chapter. So Moriah means to be seen by God. The place that God saw. or the place that God chose. That's the idea. God saw this place. I didn't see this place. No, God saw this place and then he told Abraham about it. So God saw this place. Now what's unique about Moriah is that Moriah is where they built, Mount Moriah is where the Temple of Solomon is built. And the very top of that mountain is Golgotha, which is where Jesus is traditionally thought to have died or been put to death, and it was on that hill, of Moriah. Golgotha is the top of Mount Moriah. So it really is an interesting thing that God chose that place to send Abraham to, and it was the very place that he sent Jesus to. Does everybody see the parallels here? It's an amazing thing, okay? He says, and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell you of. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him. Now the word young men there is the plural of the very word that he talks about of his son when he calls him a lad. So the word that we defined lad here is the singular version of the same word that's about the young men here. So they were all about the same age is the point. Everybody kind of get that? So they were not babies, obviously. You wouldn't bring babies to help you load your equipment. You also wouldn't necessarily bring somebody who's my age to load your equipment either. If you ever saw me load equipment, you'd understand why. The point is that they're picking up and they're saying these young men, and his son is obviously a young man as well. That's the point. All right, so listen to what he says. By the way, most expositors are all over the place on that. You can't say, well, most expositors think he was 12. Most expositors think he was 32. Most expositors think he was 25. It's all over the place, and there's really no rhyme or reason to it. But I will say this, he was younger than whatever Sarah was when she gave birth to him, which we estimate was probably when she was about 95. And when she dies in the very next chapter, the first verse in the next chapter tells us she died right after this event and she was 127 years old. So he could be as much as 32 years old based on that. We're talking about Isaac. Okay. So he could be as much as 32 years old, which by the way, is the exact same age that Jesus was when he died. Just coincidental. Just a little thing there. Anyhow, I don't know. But you can't be dogmatic about any of this as far as numbers and stuff. Can I just ask you a quick question? Yeah. Ishmael was born before Isaac. Yes, sir. And so when they say only son, because Abraham even asked God words to the effect that why can't Ishmael come under your blessing? And then Abraham said, you're going to have another child and I'm going to establish a covenant with him and so forth. Correct. So why does it say only son? It says only son because the covenant that we're going to read about in verse 18, 17 and 18 of this chapter is about the blessing of the Messiah. This is where the Messiah is coming through. He's not coming through Ishmael. No, I know that. But that's why he's his only son. He's his only true son. Why? Because he was the only son of both Sarah and him. And that was the only son that he and Sarah had together. And that was the only legitimate marriage he had. Ishmael, at that point, would not have been a legitimate child, in the true sense of the word. So, again, it doesn't mean he wasn't his child, but he was not his heir. And we see that, obviously, later on, when he actually gives the blessing. Oh, yeah, no question. And he gives a tremendous amount to Ishmael, but in a different sense. He is the only son of that promise in verse 17. Do you think Ishmael was along with Isaac? At this moment? No, absolutely not. No, absolutely not. Because Ishmael would have been older by at least 13 years. He was at least 13 years old when Isaac was born. So no, there's no indication of that. No indication that Ishmael is even around at this point. So yeah, so anyhow. All right, so let's get back to the verse. This is, and Abraham rose up early in the morning, saddled his ass, took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and claimed the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up and went to the place of which God had told him. Okay, that God had told him. Now, this is important. Whenever we see the Lord speaking to the prophets, almost without exception, we talked a little bit about this on Tuesday, we see them, when God says it, we see the prophets talking about the fact that God showed them. I saw this. You don't hear it in the sense of them hearing a vision. No, they always saw what God was about to tell them. So we can assume that the same thing happened here to Abraham, that he was given a vision by God as to where he was to go. Otherwise, how would he know how to get there? I mean, did God just say, you know, go down to the first bush and make a left? Remember, it took three days to get there, so it's not like, you know, good. No. He gave him a vision. He actually showed him where he was supposed to go, and he was able to see that. And remember, this is important. It was all about seeing. This is all about seeing. Remember that, okay? All right, so look at what he says. He says, then on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes, and he, what? Saw the place afar off. All right, so we, and again, that same word, by the way, ra'a, he saw ra'a, that thing of, you know, same word Jehovah, ra'a. So it's that same idea here that we see. So he saw this place afar off. And then verse five. And Abraham said unto his young men, abide here with the ass, and I and the lad will go up yonder and worship. This is the first place in scripture where the word worship is used. Isn't that interesting? So here we go. So he says, you'll go up yonder and worship and we will what? Come again. Do you know what the word come again is? This is such an interesting thing. So when this was translated from Hebrew to Greek in the Septuagint, they had to use Greek words. The word that they used for this come again was rise up. The same word that's used for the resurrection of Jesus. Yeah. So, rise up. Same thing. Same expression. And isn't it interesting that when you read the book of Hebrews, it tells you about Abram that the reason why he was convinced that he could sacrifice his only son was because he was convinced that if in fact he did that, God would what? Rise him up. Would resurrect him from the dead. Would actually rise him up. So this is an expression. So he's telling the lads that. That's where the book of Hebrews gets this from, by the way. is from that particular verse. So he's telling them, look, we're coming back. We're coming back. I don't know how we're coming back, but we coming back. All right. So listen to what he says. He says, and Abram took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac, his son. Now, isn't that interesting? He put the burden on his son. He put the burden on his son. Does that sound familiar? So he put the burden on his son and he took the fire in his hand and a knife and they went both of them together. You see, one of the things that we have to realize about this particular section of scripture is that this is God's perception of what was going to happen in the ultimate redemption of the world. This was God's perception. Now, you can read Psalm 69, you can read Psalm 22, that was the Messiah's perception. Oh God, oh God, you know, you know, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? That's, that's, you know, Isaiah 20, 22, or excuse me, Psalm 22, you know, where, you know, you know, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, you know, this whole idea of God, God, why have you forsaken me? That's Jesus' perception. Here, this is God's perception. Now, of course, in Isaiah 53, that's our perception. You know, who has believed our report? To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? That Isaiah 53 is actually our perception, how we perceive the atonement that Jesus provides, the substitutionary atonement that he provided. But this is God's perspective here. So look at what he says. He says, and they both went up together, and Isaac put the burden on his son. And now verse eight, it says, and Abraham said, my son, God, Listen to this. Will provide is what it says in the Bible, right? Will provide. You know what the word is there? What's the Hebrew word? Ra. Same word. It's the same word. Yeah. So he says, God will see himself or will provide himself a lamb. Now this is interesting. This is also the first time in scripture where the word lamb is used. And by the way, the first time we see the word lamb used in the New Testament is in the Gospel of John. Do you know that the word lamb is never in the Gospel of Mark? It's never in the Gospel of Luke? It's never in the Gospel of Matthew? Not in any of them. First time we see it is in the Gospel of John, and we see it right at the beginning of the Gospel of John, where we see not any just obscure person, but John the Baptist, seeing Jesus, beholding him, seeing him, get it, see? seeing Him, and as soon as he sees Him, he says what? Behold. Do you know what the word hineni actually means in Greek? It means behold. So here we go. So hineni, he says behold the Lamb of God who what? Takes away the sin of the world. Which is exactly what this is all about. So here we go. So we see this, the only place that we see the lamb used. So he will provide, he will see himself a lamb. So it's God that's going to be providing or seeing the lamb as himself. And of course, the whole verse, the version that I did that, you know, that whole word study that I did, which we're not going to do today, leads us right back to the fact that when God says himself in the Old Testament, he's always talking about the Messiah. that's just, you'll have to trust me on that one, but you know I can show it to you, anybody that would like those notes I'd be happy to give them to you. But listen to what he says, he says provide a lamb or himself a lamb, it does not say provide for himself by the way, if you go into most of your newer Bibles, that's one of the reasons I like the King James in this particular case, you'll see almost everybody adds the word for, right? But there is no word for in the Hebrew It just says ra and then the word for himself and then it says lamb. So it's just a real interesting thing. So God will provide himself a lamb for the burnt offering. So they went both of them together. And that to me is a really important issue because they were going together. In other words, this was not just something that his father was forcing on him. This was something that he was doing willingly. And that's exactly what Jesus says, doesn't he? He says, I've laid down my life, what? Willingly. And John chapter 17, the great high priestly prayer, he says, Lord, if you can take this cup from me, do it, but I get it. If you can't take it from me, I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that. that's just incredible and we see the same thing with with Isaac here and so it says verse 9 and they came to the place which God had told him of anybody want to guess what the word told is there? Ra, yeah thank you and Abraham built an altar there and look at the order here look at the order the first thing he did is he built an altar right Okay, look at what he says. He says, and he built an altar there. And secondly, it laid the wood in order. I love that, in order. Did it just exactly the way it was supposed to be done. And he bound Isaac, his son. That's the third thing he did. He bound his son. And then fourthly, he laid him on the altar upon the wood. Isn't that exactly what happened to Jesus? They laid him on the wood and they nailed him to the tree. They laid him on the way. They didn't like, you know, do it, they laid him down. And by the way, it says he laid down willingly. And then look at what it says, and Abraham stretched forth his hand. And so the final thing was, is he stretched forth his hand. At that moment, it says that when God stretched forth his hand, when his son was laying on the cross, what happened? What happened? Yeah, the curtains split. He had entrance into the high priestly and the whole entire place went black. Totally and completely. Why? Because God did not want to watch this event. Yes, it was. Yeah, it was massive. So, but here's the major point. It's all about seeing. Guys, I hope you get this. I hope you're seeing what I'm saying. It's all about seeing. And he says, and Abraham stretched forth his hand, took the knife to slay his son, and it says, and the angel of the Lord, the messenger of the Lord, the Malak Yehovah, which is just an incredible expression, too. We could actually do a whole study on that. I think we might even do that before we leave. But it says, not today, but before we leave this book, I meant. And the angel of the Lord, the Malak Yehovah, called upon him out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham, and he said, hineni. He said, hineni, here am I. And he said, verse 12, and he said, lay not your hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him, for now I, ra, I see. The word is not no, the word is to see. Now I see that thou fearest God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thy yachid, thy son, thy only son. And look at what he says, this is so cool. He says, and Abraham called the name of the place Yehovah-Jerah, for as it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. It shall be seen. All right, so what are we talking about here? Why is this all a big deal? Well, in John chapter eight, I want you to go to John chapter eight, I was just gonna, but I want you to see it. Go to John chapter eight. And we see in John chapter eight, this incredible section of scripture where Jesus is the defender of the weak and he comes up and then he declares his origin. It's just an incredible chapter. Get towards the end and there's a bunch of Hasidic type guys, very religious type of guys that are basically trying to hone him in on some sort of a crazy trick questions and this, that, and the other thing. And he then confronts them, he says, they ask the question, he says, the question is, verse 53, are you greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? And the prophets are dead, whom makest thou thyself? So who do you make yourself out to be? Who do you make yourself out to be? And I love this. It says, and Jesus answered, If I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my father that honors me, of whom you say that he is your God. Yet, you have not known him. Now this is interesting because the word known there in Greek is the word ginosko, which means to know by experience. and it is the idea of seeing. It's the idea of the same word ra'ah that we get in Hebrew. It's that same idea of seeing. Okay, so he says, yet you have not known him, but I know him. The second no there is not the word gnosko, it's the word ido. And in Greek, there are two ideas of knowing. The first is to know by experience, to see. And the other is to know intellectually, to know something because you were taught it. That's the word ido. And so the rest of the time that he uses the word know here, it's always ido. He only uses gnosko once. And that's the very beginning when he says, you haven't seen him. You don't know him. But I do, okay? He says, but I know him. And if I should say, I know him not, I am a liar. By the way, it's the same expression, almost word for word, that he uses in describing when he says that you're like your father, the devil, who was a liar from the beginning. It's the exact same expression that he's using here that he used in that earlier expression earlier on in the chapter. So look at what he says, he says, He says, in the book rather, and I shall be a liar like unto you, but I know him, Ido, and keep his saying. Now here's the deal. Look at what he says. Your father Abraham rejoiced to what? To see my day. And he did see it. That's what's incredible to me. And he did see it and was glad. and was glad, all right? I'm getting excited. And then, of course, it says, and the Jewish leadership took up stones to stone him, and he says, before Abraham was, I am, makes the declaration of the I am that we talked about when we looked at Jehovah. So what is it that we're trying to do here? Everything is about what? Seeing. all about seeing. God sees. God sees us. Everything he does, he does because he sees us. Because he knows us. That's to me the most exciting part of the entire chapter. God sees us. I don't know about you, but there is nothing worse than going into a room and feeling like you are not seen. Do you ever think about that? You walk into a room, and you don't know anyone. They don't know you. You know, they're all talking and chatting, just going it up and like that, and you're just roaming. I was up at a golf tournament in Pinehurst a couple years ago. First time I'd... Well, no, it wasn't the first time, but it was... I went to the cocktail party that we were supposed to go to. I don't do cocktail parties. I just don't do them. I'm sorry, I just don't get it. Cocktail parties and me just do not get along. I find them horrible. So probably this is partly my fault, but I walked into that room and I felt like I was just not there. I don't even know how to explain this. The emptiness that I felt walking in that room was just bizarre. And I felt like I just wasn't seen. And I would walk, and as I walked through the room, no one acknowledged my existence. No one came over and said, hey, I'm John. Good to meet you. Who are you? Nothing. I'm talking like they looked right through me. I was never seen. And it was just awful. It was one of the worst experiences. I've had this experience before, but I remember that day of all the days that I can recall, it was one of the most, I'm visualizing it right now in my brain as I'm even telling you about it. And it's painful thinking about it. And I couldn't wait to leave. except I was super hungry and I needed something to eat. And it was the only place I could get something to eat. So I literally like went over to the buffet table. I loaded up myself a plate. I went over to this like standing table. I ate that food about as fast as I could eat it. I guzzled down the quickest two or three glasses of water I could possibly guzzle down. And I was gone. I was gone because I was not seen. I was not seen. You see, God sees us, yes. yeah the veil yeah yeah so there was a veil in the Holy of Holies of the temple that separated the place where the where the people could be and where God was no no he tore it so that everyone could see it I heard it wrong. Yeah, yeah, no worries. That's good. I'm glad you asked because other people may have heard it that way too. No, he tore it. It says he actually tore it from the top to the bottom. So it wasn't torn by man, it had to be torn by God. It was the only way it could have been. And as he said it, it was about three or four, well probably a little less than three. The expression I heard was about as thick as the narrow side of a two by four. Yeah, I got it. Okay, so about an inch and a half really is probably what most people think. Well, then he said, then he said there was darkness. Yes. And then it said, and then after he had opened up that, that it says that he made the whole entire world go dark because he didn't want to see his son actually have to take on. Okay. Yeah. I never heard that before. Yeah. I mean, I knew it went dark, but I never heard reason why. Yeah. That's that. I believe that's the reason why. Yeah. Yeah, so as we read this, the picture is that God sees the place. God sees the lamp. God sees Abraham. God sees everything that's going on here. And that's why he tells Abraham, I want you to call this place, God sees. Jehovah Jireh. God sees. So what is the specific thing that you disagree with Tony Evans about, just so that I understand? Oh, OK, sure. Sure, I can tell you exactly. OK, so Tony gets into the whole thing on no, and he says, hey, let me just find it real quick. Why are you looking at that? Yeah, let me say this. This is such a good lesson and you did it so much justice. I just will have to give you a prop. God is actually giving us a visual aid of what he's going to do with his son in everything. I mean, God just actually showing us a visual picture of what Jesus did, even to the point of a two feet on the cross with the two men going up there. He's giving us a pure picture of everything he's gonna do before he did it. And it shows us what he's doing. He's not letting us be ignorant. He's actually showing us through Abraham. And when Abraham said, when Jesus said what he said, he said, Abraham desired to see my day and did see it and rejoiced. Abraham saw what God was going to do eons before he did. Gave him a literally visual prophecy of what God is going to do. And that's why Jesus said, Abraham desired to see my day. And he did see it, and he rejoiced. I mean, I think for me, if you really get it, it's like, oh my goodness. God always, as Don said before, always had our interests of restoring us to a place where we should have been. It's always been about reconciling us back to him. And here he gave us a perfect picture. And he organized everything. He showed Abraham the place. He named it Mariah. We call it Jesus' home. Everything that Jesus went through, God showed us, like a movie. Whether we get it or not, that's on us. But it's not because of his lack of showing us how much he loved us. So for me, like I said, he did his suggestion because it's an act, and then the words that he shared with us in Greek and Hebrew solidify even more. Because we don't always comprehend because of the English language. But when you get it from the Hebrew language, and it even more is profound on how much God said, listen, I'm gonna show you how much I love you. And for me, I mean, that is just mind blowing. Yes. Yeah. And that's basically what he said about the Jewish leadership. You say you know him, but you don't. You've never seen him. They don't even know him intellectually. As I'm reading this, I'm not really 100% sure I disagree now that I think about it. I had to think about it. I think when I read this, I read it quickly, and I'm not sure I disagree now. Evans was saying that God is omniscient and omnipresent and omnipotent and all of those things. So he's got to agree that God sees. Oh, no, no. The problem I had with, I actually highlighted, God isn't only a God of knowledge. He's also a God of experience. He enters into our emotions. When I first read that, I think I read it a little quickly, and I kind of missed the point. So I don't know that I even disagree with him at this point. But I think that that's a really important call-out, right? I think that that goes back to the other names, whether it be Adonai or Elohim, or Jehovah, right? The God of relationship, that God sees, God wants to have relationship with you. That piece of it, for me, was really important because it is, you know, God knows everything. God's been everything. He's already experienced, He has experienced it, and He will experience it. Yeah, and and I think it's really it's interesting to you saying that because one of the other names of God is is Emmanuel Which means what God with us? Okay, so so we we see this this this incredible Picture laid out. I want to finish this it says verse verse 14 says of course and Abraham called the place of Jehovah Jireh wrote, because he said in that day, the Mount of the Lord, it shall be seen. And look at what it says in verse 15. It says, and the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven a second time. Second time. Which I think is so cool, because again, we see a picture of where God is going to call out from heaven a second time. He's going to redeem all of us back to himself in the, you know, as he talks about in 1 Thessalonians chapter four, you know, with the rapture of the church. But look at what he says, he called unto Abraham out of heaven a second time, and he said, by myself, man, this is so cool, by myself have I sworn, what's he talking about there? Anybody know? Genesis 15 is what he's talking about. Anybody know what he's talking about there? He's talking about the covenant he had with Abraham. That's right, he's talking about the covenant he made with Abraham in Genesis 15, where he divided the parts and they walked through the parts. and so forth, but it wasn't Abram that walked through those parts, it was God alone. And so we see that he says, and by myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because you have done this thing, listen to what he said, because you have done this thing, what do you do? What do you do? He didn't do anything. Did you think about that? No, no, no. We're going to see what he did here. He didn't kill his son, because that was what he was supposed to do, right? Quote, unquote, he was supposed to kill his son. No, no, that wasn't what he was supposed to do. What he was supposed to do was be obedient. So look at what he says. He says, because you have done this thing, what thing? Be obedient. That's what he's talking about. All right, and we're going to see that in verse 16, or 18 rather. It says, because you have done this thing and you have not withheld your son, your Yahid son, bar Yahid, right? Only son. He says that in blessing, I will bless you. And in multiplying, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven. Now, he told us that before. It's the first time he's been told this. He was promised that in Genesis chapter 12. He was promised that in Genesis chapter 17. He was promised this in Genesis 15. But here, he's saying, man, I'm telling you, it is gonna happen. It's gonna happen from your only son. Somebody says he says and I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven as the sand Which is upon the seashore and your seed shall possess the gates of their enemies and in your seed Shall all the nations of the earth be blessed why? Amen Because you have obeyed my voice you see I saw that And that's what God is talking about. So when Jesus said, Abraham saw my day, that's what he's talking about. He saw it. He saw what was gonna happen. God revealed to him at that moment that he was gonna provide, that he was going to see his son. He was going to see his only son die on a altar where he was laid on wood for our sacrifice, and that it was going to be totally and completely done. It was not going to be partially done, it was going to be completely done. And that's why he says here, he says, this is over, man, you have got it. The blessing is going to happen. And he says, and so Abraham returned, I love this. And so Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up, and they went together to Beersheba, and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba." Well, what about Isaac? Where'd Isaac go? No mention of Isaac. None. None. Why? Why? Why is there no mention of Isaac? Now, there's all sorts of reasons that expositors come up with. I got my reasons. They got theirs. I'll just tell you mine. Mine are because at that moment, Isaac was resurrected out of Abram's temporal life. He actually was taken out of his temporal life. He was not around him anymore. Wasn't around him anymore. At that moment, Isaac was gone. He wasn't in. Just like when Jesus left this world, he was gone too. And the fact of the matter is, is that he had to be gone, because if he wasn't gone, then God couldn't do the other things that he wanted to do that we're going to read about in the next two chapters. But that's the whole, we ain't going to go in the next two chapters, but that's the point. The idea here is that once that sacrifice was made, it was finished. And so Jesus said what? When it was all said and done, it is what? It is finished. And so we see that here. It is finished. Abraham and Isaac no longer have to do this anymore. They don't have to play this dance anymore. So I believe that Isaac went his way and Abraham went his way. And they parted it, didn't mean they parted it, and he's obviously gonna see in the next chapter that that's clearly not the case. But the fact of the matter is, is that at that moment is when he went on to do his greater things. And that's exactly what happened with Jesus. Once Jesus was sacrificed, he went on to do his greater things, which is what he's doing now. Much greater than what he was doing when he was on this earth. And so we see that picture. So here's the deal. God sees. he sees. So this idea of God provides, I get it. But to me, it's much bigger than that. It's just bigger than that. You know, I've had people provide for me and help me and so forth. And the reason that they did, though, is because they saw me. They knew me. There was a reason for them to do that. You know, it's really an amazing thing, but once you see someone who is in, you know, just here recently, I think a couple of weeks ago, maybe a week ago, there was this pastor that was up in, I think it was in Mississippi, and he saw a person in distress. Saw a person in distress. So he went to help that person, because he saw them. And his heart was, you know, hey, what can I do to help this guy? Because that's just who he was. And I use the word was because that guy who supposedly was in need basically just wanted to find somebody who he could steal his truck and he shot the pastor and killed him. And took his truck and so forth and so on. And it's just a tragic story. But the fact is that that pastor was doing what he always did, which was he saw and he went. He saw and he went. And that's what God does for us. He sees and he always provides for us. He always takes care of us. He always makes sure that we're... Now, does that mean that we're gonna be rich, famous? No. Does that mean that we're gonna have an abundance of more than we could ever ask or think? No, because remember when God provided manna, He provided enough for the day, right? And then the next day, He gave another batch of manna. And if you took more than a day's supply, that manna just went bad, right? It went rancid, the Bible tells us. So clearly, God provides, doesn't necessarily overwhelmingly do, you know, anything more, you know, the earthly kind of provision that we think of. You know, we think of provision as, in an earthly sense, we think about putting in store and aside and, you know, silos built and all that kind of stuff. We call that provisions, right? It's actually that same word used again. But God doesn't do that. God sees us. He provides. He takes care of us. And that is the beauty of this expression, Jehovah-Jireh. that he sees. So, anyhow, that's all I got. I don't know if there's any other comments people want to make. One question. Yeah. You know, God tells Abraham that he's going to bless all the nations of the earth. Yeah. Not Israel. Yeah. Not just the Jews. Yeah, that's correct. That's what he's saying, right? For every single... And other religions recognize Abraham. But this one part right here has always troubled me, that it's not just for you, it's for all the nations of the earth, and yet religions are focused on them. It's like the parallel between this and... And I think what's really fascinating is that the Bible tells us that he's broken down the middle wall of partition that was between Jew and Gentile, and between man and woman, and between bond and free. He's broken down that middle wall of partition. He's taken it out. To me, that is the great mystery of our faith. That is the great mystery, is that he's broken down that wall. Here's the problem. We keep building back up. So he's broken it down, we build it. He breaks it down, we build it. It's just crazy. But that is such an interesting point. And the word nations there, by the way, is the word goyim, which means Gentiles. So it's non-Jews. So it's really an interesting expression. All right, well, it's a couple minutes after 8. Yes, sir? But we need to keep, well, I don't know if everybody agrees, plan for the Jews and a separate plan for the church. Ultimately, right. But not now. Not now. No, eventually. Yeah, eventually, right. But many theological scholars believe that there's only one plan, that Israel's disobedience means that the Abrahamic covenant was no longer kept. And the Bible clearly tells us that it was forever. Forever. Amen. Yeah. Because he could swear by no greater, he swore what? By himself. By himself. isn't interesting by himself. What God cannot do is lie. Yes, exactly right. All right, let's get out of here and we'll finish this conversation.